Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The Refining Sector, International Game Tech and Gilead Sciences were today’s noteworthy downgrades:

• Bernstein downgraded the Refining Sector to Market Weight from Overweight based on the weakening earnings outlook for the group. The firm downgraded Sunoco (NYSE: SUN) and Tesoro (NYSE: TSO) to Market Perform from Outperform.
• Citigroup downgraded shares of International Game Tech (NYSE: IGT) to Hold from Buy following the company’s lower than expected guidance and removed the stock from their Top Picks Live List. The firm lowered their target to $25 from $45. Shares were also downgraded at Oppenheimer to Perform from Outperform following the company’s lower-than-expected results.
• Jefferies cut Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) to Hold from Buy following the company’s Q2 results as they see limited upside catalysts and a matured core HIV drug franchise. The firm maintains a $56 target. BMO Capital downgraded GILD to Market Perform from Outperform based on valuation, flattening HIV sales, Letairis growth below expectations, and increased R&D costs.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) was downgraded at RBC Capital to Outperform from Top Pick.
• Goldman removed Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) from the Conviction Buy List.
• Progressive (NYSE: PGR) was lowered to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.